Say it With Me; John Boehner is Just Wasting Everyone's Time

Seriously, what the hell is Sir John of Orange doing? Last night, Boehner finally had to abandon his attempt to get his debt limit bill passed, because he couldn't get enough votes in the House to push it through. But that's OK, because there was no way in hell the Senate was going to pass it anyway. Metaphorically speaking, he was gunning the engine in a desperate attempt to run straight into a brick wall before the clock ran out.

Now, he's actually taking the zero chance his bill had of surviving in the Senate and moving it into negative territory, by tying his bill to a Balanced Budget Amendment to please the crazies.


[Politico:]

House Republican leaders will tie a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution to their two-step debt-ceiling bill — a move that is all but certain to clinch the necessary votes to pass Speaker John Boehner's proposal a day after it stalled...

Several GOP conservatives had held back their support for Boehner's bill because they wanted the balanced budget amendment provision included. It was the main point of contention in Thursday night's talks between GOP leaders and the holdouts.

The House plans to vote on the bill Friday afternoon.


"If Boehner pulls off a victory in the House, the bill will then head to a hostile Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid has said the package is dead on arrival," the report goes on. "Reid is preparing to introduce his own debt-ceiling package, calling it 'the last train out of the station.' It shares some similarities with Boehner's plan, but would raise the debt-ceiling into 2013, rather than require a second vote in February."

Of course, the 'baggers are happy with the Balanced Budget Amendment, because they believe that people in Washington are incapable of doing their jobs -- while bending over backwards to prove that assessment correct. A Balanced Budget Amendment could more honestly be called the "Stop Me Before I Spend Again" amendment, since (presumably) no one put a gun to Republican's heads and made them vote for unfunded deficit fertilizer like Medicare Part D, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy. Taken together, these have all grown deficits at a record pace, while all these teabagging freshmen were sitting in their easy chairs, listening to Rush Limbaugh, and cheering it all on. Want to cut down on deficit spending? Elect fewer Republicans, not more.

And, in all the drama and late-night arm-twisting Boehner's plan is generating, the sheer pointlessness of his efforts is being lost. None of this is going to go anywhere, it's all a waste of time, it's all just fiddling while Rome burns. The media should be spending a lot less time on the behind-the-scenes wrangling and a lot more on the stupid pointlessness of it all. We're four days away from the debt limit deadline and Boehner's dicking around with doomed, symbolic legislation designed solely to create the appearance of doing actual work.

It's recently been asked if this is the "worst congress ever." Maybe we should narrow that down; is John Boehner the worst speaker ever?

-Wisco